The present invention relates to a method of producing metal by electrolysis carried out in a molten solvent and more particularly to the production of aluminum by such technique.
Over the years, the metallurgical industry has made various efforts to move to bipolar cells. There are the efforts regarding AlCl.sub.3 electrolysis--see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,899. And, there are the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 efforts--see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 3,178,363. The Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 effort has been hampered by the consumption of the carbon electrodes. All efforts heretofore are characterized by the studious application of broad plates as electrodes.
In other areas of chemistry, there has arisen the idea of carrying out bipolar processes in beds of particles. See e.g. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,761,383 and 4,124,453.
Beds of particles have also been used as one of the electrodes in cells. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,703,446, 3,716,459, and 3,770,503 and Erzmetall, Volume 30 (Sept. 1977), No. 9, pages 365 to 369.